The field of the present invention is the extraction of resins containing organic compounds from resinous plants, and more particularly to the separation of resin from resin-bearing glandular trichomes being from none or low resin bearing plant matter.
A number of plant varieties produce commercially valuable isoprene derivatives and phenolic compounds such as terpenes, alpha acids, beta acids, flavonoids and terpenoids in cell assemblies know as trichomes or more specifically, in the glands of glandular trichomes. Portions of different plants are rich in trichomes containing compounds of interest in commercial and medicinal applications. Conventional extractive processes may not be adequate in preserving volatile and/or oxidation-sensitive compounds.
Conventional extraction and separation methods utilize solvents which may be polar, non-polar or combinations thereof in order to extract and separate desirable substances. Conventional extraction methods are expensive to conduct safely and may introduce undesired compounds by collateral extraction. Commonly extracted undesirable compounds may include pigments such as anthocyanin, chlorophyll, tannins, saponins and lipids from cellulosic and other plant materials.
Further, as plants mature, many glands of glandular trichomes increase in size, mass and chemical composition. Plant cells associated with the trichomes biosynthesize phenolic compounds including terpenoids such as cannabinoids and humulones. However, at harvest time, when the plant is deemed to have reached a peak in the content of desired compounds, trichome assemblies may be in a range of sizes. It is believed that larger trichomes may have a different composition than the smaller trichomes. Hence, it would also be desirable to separate trichomes by size before chemical extraction or separation of such mixture of compounds from the trichomes.
Trichome and trichome gland assemblies can be separated from the bulk of undesirable plant material by sieving procedures. Larger trichomes can be harder to separate from undesirable plant matter that do not contain desired chemical species
While relatively small trichome glands can be separated from undesirable plant materials by sieving procedures, larger trichomes can be harder to separate, as larger sized sieve fractions contain greater amounts of undesirable plant material thereby diluting the net content of desirable compounds in trichomes and trichome glands. Physical dilution necessitates significant fragmentation of the less desired plant matter. However, as resin bearing trichomes are sticky, physical separation by dry or wet sieving processes are problematic because a large fraction of plant matter fragments of comparable size to the desired trichomes are generated from the mechanical force of agitation, chopping or grinding of the plant matter to release the desirable trichomes and/or trichome glands.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved process for separating desirable trichomes and/or specific trichome structures from undesirable trichome parts and/or plant matter that overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages. Such undesirable trichome parts include trichome stems that do not contain desired compounds, or non-resin bearing trichomes.
The above and other objects, effects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings